Yes, it was the blunder heard around the world – well, at least around the U.S. Now it seems that “American Idol” execs feel they must defend Paula Abdul. Executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz said yesterday “Why would we get rid of Paula?” She told AP that she loved that everyone was talking about it and that you would think there was no other news on television (well, there isn’t much).
Execs are still blaming Paula’s psychic critique of Jason Castro’s second song before he had sang it on the switch up of the normal format. Instead of critiquing each singer after their performance, the judges were to wait until after both performances and review them both together.
Why did Ryan ask for a quick overview after the first song when he had announced the new format? Frot-Coutaz said the decision to switch the format yet again was very last minute, so Paula’s confusion is natural.
Paula’s first official response is that she had skipped forward and was reading her notes on another contestant (David Cook). Then, she said that she had written down notes on Jason’s second performance during the dress rehearsal and was reading them.
Frot-Coutaz said that Paula is great for the show and a great team player. In addition, with all this hubbub about the blunder, she is keeping “American Idol” in the news on a season when the ratings are dropping. Last week show’s was the lowest rated in the past five years of Idol. Frot-Coutaz insists that the “American Idol” is not manipulative in any way, but if you have watched it, you know there is a playful rivalry between Ryan and Simon that just isn’t really there. There is also that weird sexual tension that occasionally creeps up between the two.
Frot-Coutaz isn’t the only one talking about Idol. Even presidential hopeful Barack Obama got in on the action. He hosted David Letterman’s Thursday night top 10 and the number two “Surprising Facts about Barack Obama” was “This has nothing to do with the Top Ten, but what the heck is up with Paula Abdul?”
I guess the one good thing is that Paula seems to take all the controversy in stride.